Toffees red-faced after website mistakenly announces Riquelme signing

THERE were red faces at Goodison Park yesterday after Everton mistakenly announced the club had bought Juan Roman Riquelme.

Visitors to the Blues’ website were shocked to read the midfielder, who in truth could be on the verge of joining Athletico Madrid, had signed a three-year-deal with the Toffees.

Thousands of Everton supporters flooded internet messageboards and the club’s switchboard welcoming the signing, “announced” at 11.30am.

But less than an hour later, the news was withdrawn. The shock signing turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking by the webpage designer.

Supporter Drew Bellis, 27, from Woolton, said: “I almost had a heart attack when I saw it.

“You could see the way the page was designed that all wasn’t quite right. But God, I wish it was true.”

A short time later, the club issued a statement apologising for the blunder.

The statement said the article was completely untrue and appeared as a result of a technical error during maintenance work on the site. A club spokesman said: “During uploading the new home page designs for the website, some test data was displayed for a very short period and immediately removed after it had been identified.

“Example data had been used during the testing process and this was missed by our appointed web development company during the final upload.

“We have spoken to our suppliers to convey our complete dissatisfaction at the way this misinformation appeared and they have apologised to the club and Everton supporters who may have may have read the article.”